No meeting between Putin and Zelensky has been said by the Kremlin

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian bombs hit targets at night, possibly damaging a chemical plant in the north of the country, causing an “ammonia spill.”

Ukraine on Monday rejected a Russian ultimatum to surrender the besieged port city of Mariupol as Russian shocks destroyed a shopping center in the capital, Kiev, at night, killing eight people.

Nearly 350,000 people are trapped without water and electricity in the southern city of Mariupol, which has been bombed for almost a month by Russian troops, described by EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell as a “massive war crime”.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian bombs hit targets at night, possibly damaging a chemical plant in the north of the country, causing an “ammonia spill.” Russia’s shocks, possibly with a rocket, destroyed a shopping center in Kiev, whose mayor announced a new commandant’s hour.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Europe to significantly increase pressure on Moscow to stop the invasion, saying the continent must stop all trade with Russia. “No euro for the occupiers. Close all your ports.

Do not export your goods to them. Deny energy resources. Press for Russia to leave Ukraine, “Zelensky said in a recent video address.

Ukrainian leaders also stressed their strong opposition to the invaders in Mariupol, who are suffering from a critical humanitarian crisis. Defenders of the port city “have played a huge role in destroying the enemy’s plans and improving our defense,” said Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.

“Today, Mariupol is saving Kiev, the Dnieper and Odessa. Everyone needs to understand that. ”

The Kremlin said there were still no grounds for possible talks between President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky and that significant progress was needed first.

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The Kremlin’s military command had warned that the Mariupol authorities had until March 21 to respond to eight pages of demand, which Ukrainian officials said would be a capitulation.

Rejecting Russia’s ultimatum, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Irina Vereshchuk, said Moscow should allow the trapped people to escape instead.

Russia is stepping up air and naval military operations in an effort to reverse the war in Ukraine, where Kiev’s defensive “dexterity” is holding back the invasion, the Pentagon said on Monday.

The Kremlin is “desperate” to increase its momentum in a war in which its troops have become “frustrated and agitated” by resistance that has shown resilience despite being defeated and armed, a senior U.S. defense official said.

Putin’s forces have stepped up their flights over and around Ukraine, carrying out more than 300 missions in the past 24 hours, and Kyiv has also stepped up its air operations in an attempt to deny Russia’s supremacy in the sky, the official told reporters.

Some of the operations are dog fights, as Russian military personnel tend to fire air-to-ground missiles at Ukrainian targets from the Russian or Belarusian skies.

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“They are not in a very long or very long time in Ukrainian airspace, because the Ukrainians have defended their airspace very skillfully,” said the official, who wished to remain anonymous.

He said in the north of the Black Sea, Russia was demonstrating “increased naval activity” using a number of warships to facilitate firing around the main port city of Odessa.

However, he added that this was not a clear sign of the imminent amphibious attack on Odessa, where civilians were preparing for the attack.

Mariupol is the main target of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, providing a ground bridge between Russian forces in the Crimea in the southwest and Russian-controlled territory in the north and east.

No meeting between Putin and Zelensky has been said by the Kremlin

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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by News East India staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)